Ayy and we're back to titles that aren't the same length as a Jack Robinson long throw (you remember Jack Robinson, don't you? He did long throws in the Cup Quarter Final last year and it was wicked) but alas, the reintroduction of shorter titles doesn't mean the results have improved on the pitch because, once again, United fell short and ended our run in the FA Cup at the Quarter Final stage for the second year running with a narrow loss to a London team. But wait! It's actually not all negative for once this week! During the second half of the game we actually took the game to our opposition and for the first time arguably this season we didn't look petrified of a team that cost more than the expensive sandwiches at Sainsbury's. So with that being said, let's get on with the review!
After another loss the previous weekend, United made some changes to the starting XI and it looked like we'd actually be using a slightly different shape to our tried and testes 3-5-2/5-3-2. In the words of Mike Bassett "Sheffield United will play four, four, f****** two" it was very exciting. Until you saw John Fleck as a left midfielder and Enda Stevens at centre back. When we actually lined up though, we were playing our traditional 3-5-2 so god knows why the official channels were putting us out as 4-4-2. That wasn't the only team sheet blunder of the day with Chelsea apparently putting out a line up an hour before kick off that just wasn't right. Eventually a pretty strong line up was announced for The Blues with first team mainstays like Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell being mixed in with fringe players like Billy Gilmour and Kepa. The first half kicked off and United came out of the blocks fastest with David McGoldrick attempting to curl a shot past Kepa from about 25 yards out but his shot was straight at the keeper. This didn't dissuade United however and a corner from Flecky found it's way through to Phil Jagielka (just a quick word on Jags, the fact that the man was even on the pitch with the events that occurred this week is genuinely incredible. Anyone would have understood had he not wanted to play this game but he did and put on a very steady performance, so congrats Jags on being brilliant and it's a performance that your brother would definitely have been proud of). However, despite this, Chelsea would take the lead in a somewhat fortuitous way. A corner was not cleared well and fell to Mason Mount on the edge of the box. Frank Lampard's former favourite son shot towards goal and his effort that was going wide was helped into the net by Ollie Norwood who's inadvertent block wrongfooted Rammers and nestled in our net for 1-0. To be fair though, unlike other times this season we didn't just give up we actually tried to get back in the game but before we could look for an equaliser, the half time whistle blew. Second half and by and large, United actually came out looking for a goal which was nice. McGoldrick seemed to be on a one man offensive mission to find a way past Kepa. He put Cesar Azpilicueta on toast with a sublime piece of skill only to see his ball across the six yard box missed by everyone and then the miss came. Last season it's fair to say Dave missed a fair few good chances. Brighton, Bournemouth just to name a couple but this season he seems to have put that behind him a bit. 6 goals this season is a pretty good return for a player in a team that doesn't really create chances but I think Dave must have thought that missing a sitter might spur United onto a positive result like it did so many times last season because that's what happened here. John Lundstram played in a brilliant cross that sat up very nicely for Dave to nod home and restore parity. From about six yards out with only the keeper to beat, Dave put his header wide. That didn't stop United though and as the half went on it looked like we'd be the ones to get a goal. Brewster came on and hit a thunderbolt of a shot that narrowly went wide of Kepa's near post. But we can't have nice things this season and almost immediately after that Chelsea went right up the other end and scored a second. It was disappointing but at least we looked decent for the first time in months, maybe we'll improve after the international break? Leeds I mentioned listening to Instant Crush by Daft Punk the last time I did a post and I think there's a lot of parallels between that song and us this season. In a song about falling in love with someone that may never reciprocate that love and coming to terms with that in a pretty harsh way is a pretty nice summary of what a lot of United fans have surely felt at some point this season. We all had a summer memory that will just never die in last season and the club have been trying to paper over cracks in the road that they'd want to disguise and I think we've all wanted to stop listening to the clubs problems and that they listen to ours, but despite wanting to give it up and give it away we just can't. We keep on watching even though we don't want to because I think above everything we care too much about this club to just stop watching. It's a blessing (not yet, not now) and a curse that we've all lived with whilst watching United this past year. Anyway, we lost to Leeds which was very predictable. Rammers was brilliant again and Ben Osborn scored his first competitive goal for United. That's the only positives about this game, George clattering the Leeds player might have been one but then he went off with concussion so that could mean he's out for Arsenal. It's just not fun. When will this end? At least I got a refund from Amazon Prime aka Leeds's Only Fans account. I'll see you all soon, UTB.
0 Comments
That's the longest title I think I've ever done (and probably ever will do) for a blog post on this website but I think it get's across the gist of what this article is going to be about. Yes, I didn't write my brief(ish) review directly after the matches again, partly due to busyness and partly due to us being crap in the four games since we last saw each other, We actually won a game which was nice, then we lost the other three and to top it all off, on the 12th of March 2021 after five years as manager of Sheffield United, Chris Wilder left the club. It's fair to say it's been a pretty turbulent past few days. Let's just get this over with, I just want to go back to watching videos from when we were good.
Game 1: Sheffield United 0, Liverpool 2, 28th February 2021 Thank god for Aaron Ramsdale in this game, he's come in for some stick this season but I'd say since the turn of the year at least he's probably been the stand out player in this woeful Sheffield United outfit and this game, especially the first half, showed that progression from a player that looked like his confidence had been shattered to a man genuinely keeping us in games. Rammers managed to pull off exceptional saves from the likes of Roberto Firmino and Trent Alexander-Arnold as we somehow got into half time of this game on a level pegging with the defending champions. The very best of a brilliant half for our young stopper was a fantastic reflex save to deny Firmino when the Brazilian raced towards goal with a goal looking like the only reasonable outcome, Rammers stuck out a hand and turned the ball away for a corner. It was brilliant goalkeeping and then the second half happened and goals from Curtis Jones and an own goal from Kean Bryan took away from a good performance from our keeper. Game 2: Sheffield United 1, Aston Villa 0, 3rd March 2021 Whilst we're deifying players in the opening of these summaries, another player who is worthy of praise from The Big G (TM pending) is David McGoldrick. So many times this season has the free transfer from Ipswich Town been the offensive highlight in a season were he's gone and bagged six goals in the Premier League, tripling his total for the whole of last season by March and in this game he possibly scored what will probably be our goal of the season. Making a turn infield about 40 yards from the Bramall Lane end goal, Dave picked out a stunner of a cross field pass to George Baldock who manged to cut inside the Villa defender and send a cross cum shot hurtling beyond the right hand post of the goal. Unbeknownst to Elmohamady, Dave had followed play from making his raking pass and managed to get on the end of George's cross/shot and diverted up and in to the net to give us a lead that we didn't relinquish even after Phil Jagielka was harshly sent off. Was our luck beginning to turn? Would we be able to build on this unlikely win? We've got Southampton next, they're struggling surely we can pounce and get more points? Game 3: Sheffield United 0, 2 Southampton, 6th March 2021 As you can see from the score line, we did not capitalise on Southampton's bad form and instead just threw the towel in completely. Rammers made some good saves to make it a more respectable score but a penalty from Ward-Prowse and an absolute thunder cracker of a shot from, who else, Che Adams condemned us to another defeat. It was just plain bad, I don't remember us having a shot on goal and not only that, we're not even sticking to the 'well, they only lose by the odd goal' that commentators like to dish out every time they watch us play like that's supposed to make things a bit better. At least they're not calling us the best team to finish bottom of the Premier League, we're just crap. Surely it can't get any worse could it? Game 4: Leicester City 5(!), 0 Sheffield United, 14th March 2021 Well it did. Wilder left then we got pasted by the crisp men. To be honest, this was the first time in a long time that I just didn't care about what we did in the game. It just hurt not to see Wilder on the side line. Knill and Prestridge were still there but I can only describe it as when you split up from a long term partner and then instead of taking their pets with them they just leave them with you. You love the things still but you know that they aren't fully yours and you probably know that the pets might feel a similar way. Anyway, 5-0 flattered us, Rammers was MOTM despite conceding 5 goals. At least Vardy didn't score against us for once. That's nice. And that's that, once again we're all caught up on The Blades slow and painful demise back into the second tier of English football. We're rubbish, we haven't got our talismanic manager anymore and did I mention how bad we are? Oh well, I'll see you on Monday maybe, or maybe not, depends if we get obliterated by Chelsea or not. If we do, I'll review some Daft Punk songs or something. I don't know. Anyway, until next time, UTB. |
AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
Categories |